Annotating Germplasm to Planteome Reference Ontologies

An expected use case of plant phenotype ontologies will be the identification of germplasm containing particular traits of interest. If phenotype data from experiments is annotated using ontologies, it makes sense to include annotations to that germplasm source. A lack of standardized data formatting reduces the utility of these data. Standardizing germplasm data, including links to germplasm databases, or distribution locations improves collaboration, and benefits both researchers and the scientific community as a whole. All plant traits contained in the Planteome reference ontologies are searchable, and interconnected through relationships in the ontology. All data annotated to these reference ontologies will be displayed, shareable, and computable through the Planteome website (www.planteome.org) and APIs. This manuscript will discuss the advantages of standardizing germplasm trait annotation, and the semi-automated process developed to achieve such standardization. Keywords—ontology; germplasm; data standards; Planteome; automation.